WOULD YOU TAKE IN A REFUGEE?

With thousands of people fleeing their homes and seeking refuge in the UK, we investigate what it means to offer a safe home to those in need

- VERONIQUE HAWKSWORTH, SARAH HASELWOOD.

Imagine being forced to leave your home, fleeing to somewhere completely unknown in the hope of finding safety. That's reality for the 35 million people currently living as refugees worldwide, and while there's no one reason why someone becomes a refugee, many are escaping war and violence.

Others flee from persecution due to gender or sexual orientation, some because of hunger or natural disasters. This week is Refugee Week, which honours those forced to leave their homes. But with countries including the UK struggling to process a backlog of asylum applications, many vulnerable people are left in limbo, waiting in detention centres for months at a time.

As of last year, there were more than 365,000 refugees living in the UK, many escaping conflicts in Ukraine and Afghanistan. Some have been welcomed into the homes of Brits, and given the opportunity to live in safety and enjoy all that British life has to offer and they've brought so much to their host families' lives in return. We speak to one woman who welcomed a refugee into her home, and is urging others to do the same.

'As a family we wanted to help'

Xanthe Pitt, 58, lives in East London with her husband and two grown-up children